A new village for hundreds of university students could be created in York under ambitious plans for the city's Queen Anne School site.

Queen Anne School, York

But a rival scheme also submitted to the City of York Council could see it becoming an extension to next-door St Peter's School.

The site, off Bootham, is up for sale because the school is to close in the summer and the council could use the cash raised to address a potential £3.5 million shortfall in its capital programme.

The College of Ripon and York St John is to close its Ripon campus over the next two years and is looking for a site for a new student village in York.

Principal Dianne Willcocks said they would be looking to build new accommodation for 500 students. She said their bid would also involve developing the existing school building as a centre for "lifelong learning".

This would mean running courses for adults and opening up the building to other providers such as the City of York Council to use for running courses.

"We realise we are in a competitive bidding situation so we are looking at other options," she said.

She said 250 extra students would be coming to York this September and another 600 next September.

St Peter's School, the independent school which also incorporates St Olave's School and Clifton Preparatory School, has also submitted a bid for the whole site. A spokeswoman for the school said a successful bid would allow the school to reorganise its site and would allow the school to develop its teaching and domestic facilities.

But she stressed that there would be no external alteration to the existing Queen Anne buildings.

And she said that use by the local community of both the Queen Anne facilities and the existing St Peter's campus would be discussed with a view to offering increased opportunities for outside involvement by groups.

"Depending on how bids are handled by the City of York Council, the school intends in time to brief the local community as to its future plans for the Queen Anne site," she said.

Roy Templeman, director of environmental and development services at the City of York Council, said the council had received "a number of expressions of interest from various people".

He said officers were examining the various proposals and would be drawing up a shortlist which would then be publicised, probably within the next month.

York residents would then be able to give their views on the different ideas before councillors reached a decision, and any detailed plans drawn up later would have to get planning permission.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.